Keyboarding at Home

Tips for Home Keyboarding:

• Set aside a 2-4 week period for 20-30 min. daily keyboarding sessions.  Sporadic use of keyboarding skills, does not allow for retaining skills.

• Limit the use of full-fingered keyboarding programs to 3rd-5th graders. A 2nd grader with larger hands and good hand-eye coordination might have success. Studies show that younger children could put stress on undeveloped smaller hands or will get frustrated,

• Observe your student as they keyboard, reminding them to keep their fingers on the HOME ROW KEYS.

Cougar Ridge Keyboarding Software

     Humanities Software, the publishers of our keyboarding software, KeyWords, granted us the right to distribute a home copy of the program to Cougar Ridge Students.  CD copies will be distributed to all 3rd grade and new 4th and 5th grade students. Install the software on your home computer, then return the CD.  You do not need the CD to run the program, once installed.

note:  KeyWords no longer works on a Macintosh computers.  We do not have a take home license or free software for Macintosh, but the following keyboarding titles could be used as a home supplement:  Mavis Beacon/ Roller Typing; Sponge Bob Square Pants, Typing Tutor Jr.; Type Through Time

Configuring KeyWords-the program comes with defaults that do not align with our district keyboarding standards. Please use the following instructions to reconfigure KeyWords.

	From the Start Menu, select Programs, and Open KeyWords (or add a short-cut to the deskop) Pull down the Management Menu, and select Teacher Double-Click on the Guest name. You will be asked for a password, which is simply Guest (with a capital G)
	Change the font size to Large (18pt) will not take effect until you restart
	Change the Passing Criteria to be more inline with district standards, click on the Passing Criteria tab. 3rd Grade   8-10 wpm    with    10 errors 4th Grade   10 wpm        with    3 errors 5th Grade   15 wpm        with    3 errors
	Click the KeyWords button on the bottom right of the screen to return to the program.  Restart your computer.